The 3 Best Methods for Making Iced Coffee at Home

With temperatures in the northeast nearing record heights, it's no wonder we saw more iced coffees clutched in Manhattanite hands yesterday than in the last few months. And for good reason. It's refreshing, delicious, and makes you feel good despite the fact that you're probably mainly drinking coffee in the first place so you can stay awake at work.

There's just one problem, from city business types courting one of the 250 or so Starbucks in New York City, to suburban teens hanging at the local Tim Hortons after school, and everyone in between, the way many of us consume our iced coffee is expensive. In 2010, Americans ordered 500 million iced coffee drinks from restaurants and cafes, a number far too high when you consider it's easy to make your own (better) coffee at home. Now is the time to take your ice-cold cup of caffeine, milk, and sugar with you to work in the morning. There's no right way to do it, of course: "Every time I think I know every method that's out there, I learn about a new one," says coffee scholar Daniel Humphries, who helped us navigate these caffeinated waters:

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Hot Brew

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Pros: Coffee is made up of over 1,000 different compounds (five times the number in wine) and you'll taste them all when it's hot. "Certain compounds simply won't form unless the water's hot enough," Humphries says. And you won't have to wait for it overnight, if you use something like this method.

Cons: It's very volatile once brewed, and the flavor will quickly deteriorate as it cools. Can result in very watery coffee if you don't do it right, and you need to drink it fast to get the flavor you want.

Cold Brew

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Pros: Strong, thick, richly brewed coffee, which is more stable in its concentrated form than if you used hot water, and thus will keep for a couple of weeks. This makes it easier to gulp, too. Simple to make: Just put the coffee in a French press overnight and strain in the morning, or use a moderately priced Toddy, Humphries's preferred method.

Cons: Can take up to twelve hours to make. The coffee will lose its aromatic complexity and natural acidity (although those aren't typically the reasons people drink iced coffee to begin with, so make of that what you will).

Slow-Drip Methods (Japanese and other column-brewing methods)

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Pros: You can control exactly how much water goes into the drip, how slowly it decants, and thusly, how concentrated you'd like your coffee to be. "Some of the best iced coffee I've ever had," Humphries says. "They gave me like three ounces of it, super-concentrated, and it was like a liqueur, like Amaro or Fernet, except it was coffee... Amazing flavor you can't get in other ways."

Cons: The good ones can run you $300 or more, if you're that serious about your iced coffee.

Mail-Order Bottled Iced Coffee

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Pros: The coffee will be pretty stable its concentrated form, and can last a couple weeks. But be sure to get it from serious boutique shops, like Connecticut's Cold Roman, whose reputations rely on their making it great.

Cons: Will eventually lose its flavor, so don't keep it too long. And many of the big chains, like those Starbucks Frappucinos, just don't taste as good (in our opinion). Also, you're not brewing your own coffee.